


Bruised Petals

by Ch4rl13Sm1th



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25540405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ch4rl13Sm1th/pseuds/Ch4rl13Sm1th
Summary: After Calamity Ganon has been defeated, Link and Zelda carry on to salvage what's left of their legacy.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	Bruised Petals

**Author's Note:**

> Beating the game brought me to tears, so this is my therapy.  
> A little pressure is conducive to the creative process. Too much suffocates the muse. This is a tribute while she's gasping for air. Sorry that it's a little rough around the edges.

Rain rolled over them. Link drew the Hylian hood from his pack and held it out to Zelda. 

Zelda held her open palms out and looked up to the sky. "I… I had forgotten what it felt like…" Tears mixed with rain drops. "Of all the things to cry over…" Link let his arm drop to his side and watched as Zelda felt rain on her skin for the first time in a hundred years. 

***

Link came in with freshly cooked mushroom rice balls and set a dish before Zelda where she sat at the table she had prepared. "I don't think I've yet heard your voice since being freed from Calamity Ganon," Zelda remarked. 

Link slouched forward in his seat. His gaze met hers. She hoped, and watched his mouth. The corners of his lips slowly curled up, his eyes still severe, almost mischievous. He looked as if he planned not to say anything at all, except that he began to chuckle. She was disappointed at first, but then his laugh made her giggle besides herself. "What, what is it?"

Eventually he settled down and was quiet once more. And then he said, "fuck," and doubled over laughing. Zelda couldn't help but laugh herself. 

"I swear, you are the most expressive when you eat. Can you even taste it when you inhale it so quickly?"

In answer, Link sighed contentedly and patted his stomach.

Zelda nimbly took a bite of her mushroom and rice balls. "Do you mind lending me forty rupees? I'm exhausted after holding back the bane of Hyrule for over a century, and would appreciate the perks of a soft bed."

His silence confounded her.

"Well, you only have one bed."

His knowing expression confused her further.

"What, do you seriously plan on spending the night by the fire? Out of the question. I will simply stay at the inn, and you will sleep in your own bed. For Hyrule's sake, you've earned it!"

He crossed his arms at her. 

"No one knows that I'm royalty! It's perfectly safe!"

His pose and expression didn't change. He was stubborn, and she was exhausted. She was also a lighter sleeper, and resented the prospect of the guests at the inn keeping her up. "Fine," she conceded, "but only if you promise to rent the softer bed. You have more than enough rupees to cover it, and I will not have you in discomfiture for my sake."

***

The goddess's power was blindingly bright and pained Zelda's eyes. 

She opened them. Sunlight streamed through the window panes and warmed the blankets. She savored the sensation of heat for a moment before it became unbearable and rose from bed. She looked around at the familiar setting. "Link! I've slept in, and he hasn't come in for fear of waking me, I'm sure." 

She was disappointed not to immediately find him at the cooking pot. The smell of the smoke made her stomach ache with hunger. She meandered around the house and meant to check for Link in the shed, but it was locked. Apples shone from the tree overhead and she pondered. She made a leap, but it was fruitless. She approached the trunk and stared at it, before attempting to grasp it and hoist herself up. "He makes it look so easy. I've watched him do it hundreds of times." She went to the fence, climbed to the upper rung, balanced on the post, and reached. "Almost," she coaxed. Her balance wavered. She kicked off the post with outstretched hands and flopped to the ground with a squeal. She beamed at the jewel in her hands. "That wasn't so hard."

***

She decided that she would go to the inn in hopes that the innkeeper may have some idea of Link's whereabouts. Prima smiled politely as she entered. 

"Pardon me, but I'm looking for someone, you see he should have rented the soft bed last night. I don't suppose you might have seen which way he went when he left?"

"Left?" Prima exclaimed, "I can't get him to wake up!" Zelda looked in the direction Prima pointed. She peered around the doorway and found Link, still sound asleep. "I moved him to his side- I had no reason to assume before that he had been intoxicated, but he was so unresponsive that I held a mirror to his nose to be sure he was breathing," the woman said after her. Zelda went to his side and gently removed his rupee pouch from his belt. 

"I would like to go ahead and pay for another night for him," Zelda conversed as she counted rupees out. 

Prima muttered under her breath, "sure thing, princess."

Zelda halted. "You know who I am?"

"It's obvious that you're his girlfriend," Prima huffed. "He's never come to the inn since he bought that house up the road. He came here tired as a dog, and you're just so comfortable taking his pouch. I'm in no position to get involved in lovers quarrels, but clearly that boy is tired and I can't help but suspect that you're the culprit."

Zelda couldn't think straight despite all the blood that rushed to her head from the title she was just bestowed. 

***

"You're finally awake!" Link sat up and rubbed his eyes. The lady who ran the inn was changing the sheets for the other bed. "You've been asleep for three days."

He looked around, considered the ache in his stomach from three days of hunger, and slowly recalled where he was, and then that he had to pay for the bed, and then that he had to pay triple for the time, and then double that for having gotten the better bed. He fumbled around for his rupee pouch. After a moment he finally convinced himself that he indeed had kept it strapped to his belt, and that it was missing. He lamented for a time how many apples he would need to sell to cover his debt, forgetting to be angered by the theft. 

"If you're looking for your rupees pouch, your girlfriend has it. I feared she'd spend it all; she looks like a woman of fine taste, except that each day she came back to pay for you, so there must be something left over."

For a moment he tried to remember the girls he'd bumped into most recently.  _ More to explain to Zelda when she gets out,  _ he thought, and then the thought shattered with the sudden recollection. A warm feeling came over him at the realization that she was free from her burden of restraining Calamity Ganon. He could finally rest. 

He leapt off the bed before it could reclaim him. She would likely be exploring everywhere and everything, and he was still her guard. Likely, he'd have to become her cook as well. And he was starving. 

***

The waterfall gurgled lazily beneath the bridge. As he cantered across, he took in the sight. The field was scattered with flowers. Their horses chuffed in their stalls. Surrounding the cooking pot was the familiar company of the construction crew and the princess. 

"Link, there you are!" He was surprised to be called by his name. For so long, Zelda simply referred to him as Hero, or Champion. She had donned a Hylian tunic and trousers stained green, bringing out the emerald of her eyes- clearly she'd paid Sayge a visit, and fortunately her hair hadn't suffered for it. She prattled on, "come and try some simmered fruit! I hope you don't mind that I picked your apples, and Bolson taught me how to cook them!"

"Your sweet lady is a natural cook," Bolson encouraged. "And as I always say, food made with love-"

"Is best made from the ones you love," Carson finished enthusiastically with a fist pump.

Link chuckled nervously and rubbed tentatively at the back of his head, waiting for Zelda to correct Bolson. To his surprise, she didn't. 

***

"I hope that I didn't embarrass you in front of your friends," Zelda apologized later. "I've come to the realization that it would be safest for us if Hateno village remained unaware about us being royals. They've already assumed that you have the gear you do from scavenging the castle as a treasure hunter, and the women who gossip at the well say rather awful things about the princess who couldn't spare her… never mind what they say. They invented the story for me and I'm simply playing along. I hope it doesn't make you uncomfortable?"

He shook his head a little too hurriedly. 

"I had a few ideas for our sleeping arrangement…" She assessed aloud the pros and cons between beds, hammocks, and couches.

***

Link tiptoed into the house to get a replacement bow for the one he broke. A muffled whimper stopped him in his tracks and he put a hand to his sword. He listened. Another whimper, and a rustle. He let go of the sword and went up the stairs. 

Zelda screamed. "Who's there? Link, is that you?" He lit the lantern over the bed and saw that she trembled. "I'm frightened," she muttered apologetically. "I don't know if it's a premonition, or if it's because I'd been trapped in the dark for so long, but… when I close my eyes, I feel as though I'm swallowed by it." Link looked at the lamp wonderingly. "It's too bright," Zelda complained. "It may seem peculiar of me, but the goddess's light is blinding, and when I try to sleep with the light on, I'm reminded of having channeled  _ that  _ for so long…"

Link darted out of the house with purpose. In his sudden, unexplained absence, Zelda looked forlornly at her knees. 

The door flew open, and Link darted in for a bottle, and left just as abruptly. After another moment, he returned and wordlessly climbed the stairs, boots squelching. He stopped at the bedside table and assembled a modest arrangement of silent princesses. Link blew out the lamp and beamed proudly in the dark.

"Oh!" Zelda caressed the glowing petals. "It's perfect, Link. Thank you," she added heartily. He left her without another word. She looked after him a moment and turned to admire the flowers. Zelda spoke softly to herself, "I would have been content with your company, but you never seem able to hold still."

***

"What took you so long?!" Purah leapt up on her stool. "We knew you won after that nasty energy around Hyrule castle dissipated, but that was days ago! Give this old girl a hug!!!" 

"Purah?!" Zelda at first was too shocked to reciprocate the embrace.

"All this time and you don't look a day older," the scientist studied her. 

"I'll say," she muttered, dumbfounded. "He tried to warn me, yet I was still unprepared."

"You know, now that Calamity Ganon has been sealed away, the shrines will have to be buried once more. There's not as many of us left this time around. We'll need your help, princess, yours and your knight's."

Link sensed Zelda tense. "But of course," she concurred. "Too much power in the wrong hands endangers what we've fought so hard to save, and they've served their purpose."

***

They stepped out into the yard in front of the lab. From here on the hill they looked out over the towers in the valley. Zelda gripped the Sheikah slate possessively. "It wouldn't hurt to study the shrines a little, just before we put them back," and she added under her breath, "however we're supposed to manage that one." 

Link watched her wrestle in her mind with the prospect of burying the very things that saved them, the technology she so ardently studied when her faith in her powers wavered. She huffed. "Father was wrong, after all. It was only after you'd found the shrines, trained, and enhanced your being that you were strong enough to face Calamity Ganon. Though I can't undo what has been done, I can't support his aversion to Sheika technology. It may be of great benefit to document all we can learn about the shrines if history were ever to repeat itself."

***

The sweet, delicate smell of a field of silent princesses tickled his face. 

Link's eyes fluttered open. Their vibrant hue and alertness caught Zelda off guard and she snatched back her hand. "Oh! I didn't mean to wake you. I'm still getting acclimated to being corporeal again," she stammered. She waved her hands defensively, "n- not to say that I've done this before! Well, I mean- never mind what I mean. I was going to go for a walk, but you're probably still tired, and it's safe enough. We'll probably raise more suspicions if I have you glued to my side all the time, anyway. I'm only telling you so you don't fret if I'm gone when you awake. Just. Go back to sleep."

He reached for her arm as she turned away, snatching the crook of it swiftly but gently before remembering that it was forbidden to touch the princess. But that edict was from long ago, and she had technically touched him first. 

_ "Hold still." Zelda leaned a hand on his shoulder as she fidgeted with her shoe. She worked the buckle in such a way as to not crush the restless cricket stuck in her boot. Her balance faltered. The king's threat came to mind, and Link restrained from reaching to steady her.  _

_ "Catch me!" she snapped, and reflexively he gripped her elbows and steadied her, and just as swiftly pulled away. "You would have let me fall," she accused. "My father forbade you from touching me, didn't he? That's why you're uncharacteristically clumsy all of a sudden. You can be so stubbornly obedient!" She pulled her boot off completely and hopped, still holding onto his shoulder for support. "Well, here's an amended edict: don't touch the princess unless she's approached you first. Fair enough?" She shifted her attention immediately back to the cricket she managed to free and tsked. "Poor thing, I've injured its wing," she lamented. _

Zelda froze and looked at him. The intensity of her gaze shattered his resolve, and he withdrew his hand and clenched it. 

"I've done it again, haven't I; I've projected my own feelings onto the blank canvas of your silence. I don't mean that as being your fault, of course, I'm the one being a silly girl..." He knew she loathed the accusation of being a silly girl, and that she reserved that phrase for self punishment. 

"It's okay," he assured.

She blushed from ear to ear and looked away. "D-did you want to join me? On a walk? The flowers- I wanted to study the flowers. Their growth patterns. I suspect that the locations in which they grow may correlate with the effects that can be distilled from them. I began to wonder when you showed me all those blue nightshades growing around Kakariko village, where the stealth suit is prominent…" Link rose from bed and she led the way, looking ahead and regaining her confidence as she hypothesized aloud and planned their trek. 

***

"Do you remember, when father told me that it had been said that I was heir to a throne of nothing? Sometimes, when I think of all that was lost, and the bones that remain of what we once called home, I… I consider for a moment that their words came true. But then I see you, with your old tunic now enhanced with the powers of the dragons, by the magic of the fairies, and I remember that we have so much left to cherish and protect. And then, I'm inspired to rebuild again." She smiled. "Thank you, for remaining by my side. You give me the courage to keep going."

***

"Well, father isn't here to stop me, and there's no one else that I can ask. And anyway, you're so skilled yourself… could you… could you teach me how to fight?"

He gestured to the wall of weapon mounts. Too heavy for a mount, Daruk's stone crusher was propped up in the corner. On display were the lightscale trident, the identical ceremonial trident, and the seventh goddess's sword. "Hm. That one should do for me, I would think." Link concurred and removed Urbosa's sword from its mount and began to head outside. "We're doing this now," Zelda inquired with elation, trailing after him. 

Under the shade of the apple tree, Link stopped. He demonstrated the proper stance and slashed at the air, and then stepped aside, holding the sword out for her to take. Zelda took his place and held out her sword, and swiftly Link went around her to adjust her posture, widening her feet and tilting her shoulders uncomfortably back. When he was satisfied, he stood beside her, drew the Master Sword, and stroked the blade through the air slowly. She copied his movements. Discontent, he repeated the motion, and so did she. 

She wilted from the training. Her exhaustion distorted her form. Remembering her determination, Link knew she'd persist with training until she was injured. With an air of finality, he withdrew a vial from his pouch and held it out to her. 

"What's in this?"

He kept his mouth shut, unsure whether she'd refuse it if she knew that it contained extract from four tireless frogs. His silence made her wary, and reluctantly she accepted and took a swig. Before she had time to consider the taste, he redirected her back to her training. 

***

They went to the farm. Dantz made a remark about Link bringing a girl to admire his archery. Link didn't bother to correct him. 

Once they were in the forest and she'd consumed a stealth elixir, Link put a royal guard's bow in her hands. He calculated that the strength of it was more likely to kill rather than merely injure her target, even if Zelda missed her mark. Zelda struggled to pull it back, and the arrow fell short of its target. "A sobering reminder that I was forbidden from doing archery," she griped. Link made to take the bow back and she resisted him at first. He handed her a swallow bow instead. "Is this a child's toy?" She considered what she could see of his expression above the Sheika mask and clammed up. They tread deeper into the woods until she found another target. Her eyes brightened at a stag. She knocked an arrow and drew the string back with ease. She inhaled softly, held her breath like he showed her, and released the fletching.

The arrow flew true and hit its mark. 

The deer snorted in pain and dashed. 

Zelda covered her face in horror as the injured creature zigzagged through the underbrush. Link drew a golden bow, followed it in his sights for a moment, and just as it turned to zag, he felled it. 

"I don't understand," she mourned, "I hit it!" 

Link held a finger up, she wasn't certain whether it was to quiet her or to encourage her to try once more. He put the golden bow into her hands. She would have thought that it was just decorative if she hadn't seen him fire it. They snuck deeper in the forest again, the sheika suits muting their movements. Another target emerged from the underbrush. Her somber eyes turned fierce with determination. She drew back, breathed, and let her arrow fly. The deer didn't have time to grunt or snort, it simply fell.

"I did it!" she leapt up and exclaimed. They were suddenly surrounded by a cacophony of snorting and rustling. Link cried out and pushed her out of the way of a charging boar.

Zelda huffed from where they lay among ferns. "I guess I got carried away.” He sighed and shook his head. 

***

Link groaned in ecstacy and nodded at Zelda approvingly as he chewed at his meat skewer. 

"Oh please, you're the one who cooked it. I should be thanking you! Well, thank you!"

He watched her as he contemplated. Of course the golden bow would be better suited for her, and she was inclined to go for Urbosa's sword. Perhaps they should pay Rija a visit. Her commander may be a more appropriate trainer for the princess, and their weapons were designed with a physique like hers in mind. 

***

"Oh, Storm, I will miss you! It won't be for long, I'll make sure you get extra apples to make up for it." The white stallion nuzzled against Zelda's chest as she stroked him. Her green eyes met Link's concerned ones. "Must I console you, also? You needn't worry, I have the perfect plan for getting past the Yiga." She grabbed his wrist and tugged him behind the stables. She stopped abruptly and forced her sword into his hands. She turned her back on him so that she faced the cliffside. "I want you to cut my hair. Here should suffice," she gripped her golden strands in a fist at the base of her neck. "Think of it this way if you must, it will be easier to stay cool in the heat of the desert without so much hair on my neck. Well, go on. I command it. Don't be afraid to mess it up, I know you've cut your own hair with a sword, and my only complaint about your hair is that you use the horse's brush."

Link inhaled deeply and took her hair in his fingers. It's glow and silky texture were indeed trademarks of the goddess's bloodline, and it almost seemed blasphemous to take a blade to it, and so crudely. He muttered a quick prayer, clutched a small handful, and slid the blade across from behind. 

***

"After you dispatched their leader, they've become completely disorganized. They won't think to trace a couple of Hylians by a horse in royal gear," Zelda assured, shaking out her head again. Only the fabric of the Gerudo headpiece tickled her shoulders; the rest of her hair was tucked away in the colorful fabric. 


End file.
